Loughcrew Complex forum 11 room
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Stoneshifter wrote:
You remember the cupmarked Irish stone (well, it was more than cupmarked) in the unbatised infants' graveyard? A few weeks back. It set me wondering whether other carved stones were also markers for an infant gravesite. In Tibet a third of children die before their first birthday and the mortality rate must have been similar here in prehistoric times.
Markers for burials in general ?. Some Scandanavian marked rocks have seen had fires/pyres close to them . Problem is lack of excavation around marked rocks to get sufficent data to start drawing conclusions . Certainly a number of cremations in association with standing stones .

No, I was thinking of unbaptised children. It wouldn't have been baptism, in those days, of course, but there'd have been something to mark getting past the 'could quite easily die' stage. As the stones are above 300m. then the soil around them is bound to be pretty acidic and, I would guess, would dissolve greenstick bone fairly quickly. It's just another theory!